Investigation of Ni-coated-steel-meshes as alternative anode contact material to nickel in an SOFC stack.

Abstract Solid oxide fuel cell is a promising technology to convert renewable energy sources to electricity electrochemically at high efficiencies, thus an important applied research topic worldwide. The in-house developed so-called F-stack-design aims at stationary applications and can achieve a very long lifetime. However, since production costs should be reduced, one research focus lies on finding suitable less expensive materials. Therefore, alternatives for the benchmark Ni-mesh as anode contacting element in the stack were studied. Several types of Ni-coated-steels were tested in a stack. After 3000 h of operation the different anode contact materials are compared with the Ni-mesh in terms of microstructure as well as chemical composition. A discussion of the results is given. Highlights • All anode contact materials degraded similarly. • The stainless steel 430 with thin Ni-coating shows the best behavior. • The Ni-coating of the low-carbon-steel vanishes. • The Ni-coated-steel-meshes are strongly subjected to oxidation and are not suitable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]